3 6 6 D O C U M E N T 3 9 0 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 9 You would complement each other in a happy way, and the results would certainly be excellent. But even if you refuse this possibility, I would still make all imagin- able efforts to accomplish what you prefer. Come and see me soon, so that we can talk about this in detail. That there are people in our circles who are unfriendly toward you, or who do not value highly your scientific accomplishments is an unfortunate illusion, which from time to time spooks around in your head for no good reason. You should allow no space for such unjustified thoughts. With warm greetings, your A. Einstein Come soon. I will come to the Academy, also.[4] 390. To Hans Reichenbach Berlin, 30 January 1929 Dear Mr. Reichenbach, Not without a certain kind of joy, which according to an unnamed wise man is supposed to be the only unclouded sort of joy,[1] have I seen from your letter that you were thoroughly annoyed.[2] For that is, according to the thinking of the an- cient fathers, simply the just compensation for the unpleasantness that you heaped on me with your article. It is fortunate that you didn’t blow too great a fanfare oth- erwise, people would have said that the article was by me! The whole excitement in the press was due to harmless indiscretions on the part of friends whom I had informed about my successful results.[3] The resulting avalanchelike process was part of a closed cycle of passing it on–rumors–notices in the papers–hubbub in the press. Now, that passed over me like a swarm of locusts so that I was on the point of fleeing.[4] But in my hour of need, I fell back on making the statement that I would tell none of the hack writers anything before my article had been published. From your article, however, it was easy to see that you were informed. They thus accused me of breaking my word, and rightly so! This is embarrassing for me. None of the other colleagues, except for you, had answered the urgent queries ad- dressed to them by the newspapers! If you are unable to admit—even after the fact—that you should not have made any public statements, making use of personal
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